The New Girl
by Sweet but Psycho
Summary: Confident to the point of arrogance, Giima has already decided that the new ghost-type trainer is far below him.  However, after challenging her simply to prove his superiority in a battle, things...don't go as planned.  Rolandshipping.  One-shot.


**A/N Ohhhh, what's this? A RolandShipping one-shot? But I never posted THIS in my profile. I'm just so tricky.**

**I'm using the Japanese names, because Shauntal just reminds of a ghetto name, and Grimsley…ew. Just ew. So, in case you don't know, Giima = Grimsley and Shikimi = Shauntal. Oh, and Marshal is Renbu. Everyone else will have English names, because I don't have a problem with them.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon in any way, shape, or form.**

**Aerococonut, this one's for you!**

Giima hadn't taken much notice of the introverted, ghost-type user that he shared quarters with for nearly the first six months that she worked there. In fact, for the month he wasn't even sure of her name. He had just called her 'the new girl' in his head, and never had to worry about what to call her to her face, because she was always locked away in her room. He felt justified in calling her this, for he had been working at the Unova League for nearly four years when she had joined, and apart from Renbu and Alder he held the most seniority there. So 'the new girl' worked for him, and he continued to call her that in his head until one day Caitlin idly mentioned that she was grateful Shikimi had sent away a challenger that used predominantly ghost types- she wasn't sure her psychic pokemon could handle it. Giima was confused for a moment, before realizing that Shikimi must be the name of the new girl. He smiled at Caitlin, and made a mental note of her name. She wouldn't be new forever.

Not that he had much chance to use said name- the ghost trainer was almost constantly locked in her room, and Giima had just assumed that she was a die-hard trainer. It wasn't until a challenger mentioned to him that the elitist he had defeated before asked if she could feature certain aspects of him in her new book that he realized that she wasn't just training. Apparently, she was an author as well. How successful she was at such didn't really matter at that moment. He had a challenger to battle.

He won, naturally. Though he would never admit it to anyone else, Giima knew that he was the best the Elite Four. Renbu's pokemon may have had more power, but Giima's had a superior battle style, which, to him, was far more important. He could even defeat the fighting-type user about half the time, and Caitlin's psychic-types were hardly a match for him and his dark pokemon. It occurred to Giima that he had not yet challenged the new girl- Shikimi. No other challengers were booked for that day, so Giima decided to head on over to the author/trainer's room and challenge her. A foreign trainer had to book an appointment to challenge the Elite Four- they couldn't very well have trainers storming in unchecked, but since there were no other trainers scheduled for that day, he thought it was safe to head over to Shikimi's room to challenge her.

He stalked over to where she took on challengers- confident that she would still be there. Their apartments were attached directly to their battle rooms, and since she never ventured out unnecessarily, he saw no reason why she wouldn't be there. He was right; she answered his knock after a few seconds, looking a little flustered.

"Oh! Hello, er…" She trailed off, and Giima realized that just as he had not bothered to learn her name on his own, she did not know his.

"Giima." He supplied for her, letting a lazy smile curl on his lips. Shikimi smiled back apologetically, her bright brown eyes looking up into his relaxed, intelligent blue ones. "As a fellow elitist, I assume you enjoy a good battle, right?"

She nodded energetically. "Of course," she said. Giima waited for her to guess at his reason for asking, but after a few seconds, Shikimi seemed to become lost in thought after he let silence hang for a second, apparently forgetting the conversation she had been having. Giima felt the smile slip off his face, displeased at the awkward situation she had created.

"Well," he finally said, a bite of annoyance in his voice, "I was wondering whether I could interest you in a battle." His words had startled her, and upon realizing that Giima was still standing at her threshold, a faint blush appeared on the elitist's face.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I was just…um, yes, a battle sounds lovely." She seemed rather flustered, and Giima could only raise an eyebrow at her response.

"Wonderful. You're pokemon probably still need to rest from the loss you just had," he said, making the girl's shoulders slump slightly at the mentioned failure, "so how about we have this tomorrow?"

"Yes, that would be best, I think…"

"Excellent, I'll see you tomorrow then." Giima assumed- correctly- that he wouldn't be seeing the trainer for the rest of the day. He said a curt 'goodbye' and turned to leave, heading back to his room.

_Weird girl_, he thought to himself.

Giima woke up the next morning completely confident about his battle with Shikimi. After all, she raised ghost-types while he raised dark-types, which gave him an automatic advantage. He had far more seniority within the league than her, and anyone who couldn't focus well enough to have a two minute conversation with someone else was surely not focused enough to battle effectively against _him_. This battle was sure to be a shoe-in.

He strode into the lobby to find her already there, pokeball in hand. He approached her, smiling cockily as he did.

"So," he said smoothly once he reached her, "your place or mine?" A slight smirk on his lips was the only indication of the laughter he was holding back at her blush and obvious embarrassment.

"Oh, that doesn't really matter…to me! I mean like, to battle's…er…" Renbu, who had been walking by just as he said that (and knew about their battle) apparently chose that moment to butt in.

"Haha! You thought he was talking about sex!" He laughed obnoxiously as Shikimi's blush deepened. Giima smiled at him, Renbu held Giima's respect, despite what he considered to be Renbu's bluntness and occasional immaturity.

"Thank you, Renbu." He turned back to Shikimi, who had simply fallen silent. "My place then?" She nodded, and the two started walking off towards Giima's room while Renbu walked away, still chortling, in the direction of the cafeteria. They didn't talk much on the way there, and once inside the battle room Giima promptly took the position at the end closest to the door, and waited for Shikimi to take her position at the other end. Much to Giima's dismay, Shikimi seemed in no rush to take her side. She meandered slowly across, tottering from side to side a bit as she concentrated more on her thoughts than what she was doing. She took in the room around her, absorbing its differences to her own room. Giima began to get annoyed, and crossed his arms as he waited for the oblivious girl to reach her destiny. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally reached the other end, smiling completely unapologetically at him, apparently oblivious to his annoyance. He huffed, but made sure to calm himself before sending out his first pokemon, Krookodile. Shikimi sent out Froslass, and their battle began. Giima couldn't help but smirk, confident this would be a quick win for him.

And watched as his first two pokemon were knocked out before he could even cause damage. Giima was…baffled, there was no other word for it. Shikimi was the newest Elite Four, he had a type advantage, she was an unfocused weirdo- how on earth had that happened? Giima sent out his third pokemon- Liepard, his partner- and began to watch Shikimi and her pokemon more closely.

Her battling style was…unique, to say the least. If Giima hadn't seen it in action, he might have also assumed it was ineffective. But alas, he had two unconscious pokemon that said otherwise. She would lead her ghost around the field, guiding it to the points where its attacks would have the most affect. But the weird thing was, she never once told it what move to use- instead, she would let it evaluate the situation itself and choose what move the pokemon felt would work best. She guided Froslass in curvy, unpredictable paths that would suddenly jut out into a spike, confusing Giima and Liepard into vulnerability. Gritting his teeth- Liepard was quickly becoming exhausted- Giima traced Shikimi and Froslass' paths to try and find a pattern. Spotting a place where the curve in Froslass' path would leave its back to Liepard- though only if she turned just so- Giima commanded his pokemon to rake the ghost's back with her Night Slash. Froslass squealed in pain at the unexpected assault, and automatically broke her pattern to face Liepard. Shikimi promptly commanded her pokemon to dash directly past Liepard, which she did, firing an Ice Beam at her as she went. After a few more minutes, Liepard fainted, though not before landing a few more attacks. Giima was down by three, and Shikimi still had six up. But Froslass was getting tired, and Giima had a better handle on his opponent's strategy. There was hope yet.

Scrafty was up next, and she was finally able to take down Shikimi's Froslass. She smiled at her pokemon, telling it that it did a wonderful job. Giima wondered how the challenger the previous day had managed to defeat her. Shikimi sent out her next pokemon- a Dusknoir- and enlightened an indignant Giima that each of her pokemon had a separate style that he would have to discern. Dusknoir's movements seemed more forceful, and his paths shorter. It was more likely to come in close to Scrafty to get a good hit, Giima noticed. The battle raged on, and while Giima was able to knock out Dusknoir, it cost him two more pokemon and ended in a tie. Giima had one pokemon- Shikimi still had four. He felt an urge to chuck his last pokeball at the woman's head, but restrained from doing so. That was simply not Giima's style.

Shikimi sent out a Chandelure, while Giima- cursing that he had let Sharpedo fall victim to Dusknoir- and threw Drapion's pokeball into the ring. Chandelure moved in fast loops, but added a wave here and there left Giima in the dark as to what it planned to do next. Drapion was powerful enough to cause a considerable amount of damage to Chandelure, but ended up falling pray to the hypnotic movements of the ghost. Drapion collapsed with a resounding _thud_ under Chandelure's relentless attacks and the ghost pokemon returned to Shikimi's side, its flame flickering oddly. Giima returned Drapion to his pokeball, and just stared at it while Shikimi congratulated her partner.

He had lost. Despite all his experience, all the tricks he had learned, the battles he'd had, all the strength he had acquired, despite his outright type advantage,_ he had lost_. And not to Alder, who was his boss and had far more experience. Not to Renbu, whose pokemon were stronger and had type on their side. To some introverted little newbie.

If Shikimi had listened closely in that moment, she might have heard the faint _hissss_ as Giima's ego deflated right before her eyes. However, she was focused on her pokemon, and so no such observation was made.

Giima remembered something his father had told him right before Giima had headed off on his journey.

_Remember boy; there are bad ways to win – and good ways to lose._

He hadn't thought much of the words at the time, but now they came back to him. Was this one of those cases where it was a good loss? He had never really considered labelling outcomes as 'good' or 'bad' – they just were. A win was a win, and a loss was a loss. But, obviously things weren't as black and white as that. This loss, what did it-

"That was a fun battle. Isn't Dusknoir just a beast?" Shikimi had bounded over, smiling hugely at Giima. He looked up, snapping away from his thoughts. This girl had not called out a single attack, not one. It was a bizarre strategy, made even more so by the fact that it had worked. Though, something told Giima that there were very few people that could pull such a strategy off.

"Yeah, he was really strong." He muttered, not really paying attention. He had only knocked out two of Shikimi's pokemon, while all six of his were gone. By basic math, she should have been able to knock out double his team with hers. There was obviously more to this girl than he originally thought. Perhaps it would serve him well to get to know her better. "You know, all the Elite members usually eat together in the cafeteria. Why don't you join us?" It was meant both as an invitation and as an actual inquiry as to why she didn't join them.

"Join you?" She seemed a little taken aback by the change in conversation, and the subject itself. "Well, I would. But, I'm not the best…conversationalist? And I'm, I don't know…" She trailed off, and this time, Giima didn't wait for her to say what he thought she was going to.

"You should eat with us." He smiled slyly. "We don't bite unless you want us to."

"Want you too?" She thought for a second, than blushed when she realized what he meant. "Oh…er, okay?"

"Excellent. I'll see you at dinner then."

"Whooo, look who it is! The elusive ghost girl." Renbu greeted Shikimi with a little too much enthusiasm as she walked up to the table, purse in hand and nearly bumping into someone as she went. Apparently, she was lost in thought again. Caitlin just sighed, and leaned her head against Renbu's shoulder.

"Hmm, what's her name again?" She asked, thankfully not loud enough for Shikimi to hear, who was still a few feet away.

"Shikimi." Giima told her, smiling as he remembered that she was the one that enlightened him to that fact. Caitlin nodded vaguely and closed her eyes. Giima assumed that she had just woken up from her nap.

"Hey, Giima, how'd your battle with her go?" Renbu asked as Shikimi sat opposite to him and Caitlin, and beside Giima.

"She won." He told him shortly. No need to tell him by how much; Giima already knew that he was going to be teased by the man.

"Haha, and with ghost-types too! Props to you girl- losing is something Giima needs to do a lot more of." Renbu held out his fist to Shikimi, who smiled and bumped her own against it. Caitlin huffed as the movement disturbed the side she was leaning against.

"Settle down- your voice is so loud," she told him irritably, shifting a bit.

"Don't mind Catie- she's always like this," Renbu said.

"My name isn't _Catie_, it's Caitlin, and I don't appreciate the nickname."

"Ho-kay." Renbu chuckled as Caitlin rested her head in her own arms.

_Honestly, that girl needs to learn how to wake up better_, Giima thought, observing the psychic user.

"Um, are you okay?" Shikimi asked, genuine concern in her voice.

"Yes, she is." Giima told her. "Being constantly sleepy is one of our fair lady's many quirks. Bed is where she excels." Renbu laughed, and Caitlin shot Giima a dirty look. Shikimi smiled, and began eating her food. The conversation flowed fairly well after that, though was mostly supplied by Giima and Renbu. Caitlin would chip in occasionally, and Shikimi would only respond when directly talked to.

It didn't take long for Caitlin to finish up and leave. Shikimi finished soon after and excused herself from the table, smiling and waving a cheery goodbye. Renbu made her promise she would sit with them more often, which she agreed to. Giima and Renbu talked for a few minutes more, and then Giima finished his food and got up to leave, bidding a farewell to Renbu as he helped himself to what had to be his third course.

As he walked down the hallway leading towards the main lobby, Giima noticed a slip of paper on the ground. Curious, he bent over to examine it. It was covered top to bottom in cramped, messy handwriting. Picking it up and reading it as he walked, Giima began to realize that it was a write up for part of a plot. He assumed it belonged to Shikimi, and that it had fallen out of her purse as she left.

He walked slowly as he read over the sheet, knowing he should feel guilty about reading something that belonged to someone else yet not feeling that particular emotion. There was a character bio on the sheet, and it seemed that the story revolved around her. It was a horror story, and as Giima reads he began to be more and more impressed by the creepy content of the story. It was yet unpolished- obviously- but it still had more imagination and general…intelligence than the young man would have thought possible from the strange new trainer.

He had reached Shikimi's room, and, deciding it was probably best to return her property, knocked on her door. While he waited, he thought he heard a crash come from inside, followed by a shout and what was a rather eerie laugh. The door opened to reveal a rather messy haired Shikimi.

"Oh, hello again Giima," she said, looking a little disgruntled about something.

"Ah, hello Shikimi. Is everything okay?" He asked, concerned about the noises from earlier.

"Huh? Oh you heard that? Don't worry about it, that was just, umm, what's-his-face," she gestured vaguely behind her, "Cofagrigus. He likes to play tricks."

_She forgot the name of her own pokemon for a second_, Giima thought, amused. "Okay then. Well, I found this-" he held up the sheet of paper- "on the ground. It looks like something for a book, I assumed it was yours?"

"Oh, yes it is! Thank you so much for returning it." She smiled as she reached for the paper, taking it out of Giima's hands.

"You're quite welcome. Although I was wondering…I apologize, but I couldn't help but read some of it before I returned it. I was impressed with the quality. Would it be too much to ask to borrow a book of yours?"

"Oh, uh, sure." She looked behind her, frowning. "Could you wait just a moment though?"

"Of course."

"Thanks." Quickly closing the door, Shikimi rushed over to the bookshelf that Cofagrigus had knocked over before Giima had arrived, placing the paper on a table as she went. Noting with dismay that her books were sprawled all across the floor, she sighed and positioned herself at the head of the bookshelf. She bent over and tried to stand the bookshelf back up, only to lose her grip and have it fall back to the floor with another loud crash.

_Oops. Hope Giima didn't hear that one_, she thought. Cofagrigus laughed again from the corner, entertained by her struggle. "Oh, be quiet! You could be a little more helpful," she told him, bending over to try and pick up the bookshelf again. She was thankful that she had the foresight to make Giima wait outside as she realized her dress was to low-necked for her to perform this with dignity. The bookshelf fell from her grip and again landed with a crash on the ground. "Crap!"

Out in the hallway, Giima was becoming concerned. There had been two more crashes, the same laughing as before, and now a shout from inside. What on earth was going on in there?

_Maybe I should just leave…_ he thought, brow furrowing over his light blue eyes as he tried to figure out what kind of predicament Shikimi was in. It seemed to be taking a while.

Back inside, Shikimi was now dancing around her room, sucking on her fingers. She had avoided making the bookshelf crash onto the ground for a third time by cushioning its fall with her fingers, which had failed to get out of the way in time.

_This isn't working at all. Maybe I should just give up and let Giima see my wreck of an apartment._ Just as she thought this, her Golurk came lumbering into the room, wondering what all the commotion was. "Buddy!" She hailed the massive ghost-type. "Could you help me out and put that bookshelf back?" Golurk rumbled a bit in response, and walked over to the bookshelf and easily lifted it back into its rightful place. "Thank you," she said as he walked off. Now there was just the problem of the books scattered all over the floor.

Sighing, she looked back to the door, wondering how she'd put them all back without leaving Giima out in the hall for hours. "Cofagrigus!" She turned to the pokemon, an idea occurring to her. "You made this mess, you clean it up. Use Psychic to put the books back." He just looked at her, making no move to help. "Now! Or you won't be allowed to use the water cooler for a week."

"Caaa!" Cofagrigus protested, but instantly replaced all the books haphazardly to the shelves. Shikimi knew this threat would work- Cofagrigus loved to watch the bubbles float to the top when the lever was pressed on the water cooler. Smiling, she went back to the door, hoping Giima wasn't too annoyed with the wait.

Giima, in fact, had started to think that she had forgotten he was there. It didn't seem all together unlikely- all he had heard for the past few minutes was some muttering from inside. Suddenly, however, the door flew open again to reveal a beaming Shikimi.

"Sorry about that! Come in, come in." She ushered him inside and led him to the newly repositioned bookshelf. She noticed that the books were all rather unorganized- some were upside-down, or backwards. She'd have to tidy them up later. "Uh, sorry they're so all over the place. Usually, I have them organized better, but right now…" Giima looked at her, wondering what her reason could possibly be. "They're not." She finished lamely. "So, what genre did you want?"

"Horror," Giima said, much to her pleasure. "Did you write all of these?" He asked, sounding a little awed.

"Oh, no. Just the first two shelves. Or, what used to be the first two shelves, anyway…"

"That's still…quite a few."

"Uh, thanks. Hey," she found one of her personal favourites- that she had written anyway. "What about this one?" She showed him the book, smiling.

"That looks lovely." Well, Giima assumed it did anyway. He couldn't really tell just by looking at it. "Thank you."

"Not a problem. I hope you like it," she said, now sounding a little concerned.

"I'm sure I will." He assured her. "Have a nice evening," he said by way of farewell before turning to leave. Returning to his apartment, he settled himself onto the couch, lounging back as he began to read. He absentmindedly scratched Liepard behind the ears as she jumped up to lay on his lap.

Giima could not believe how much he enjoyed the book Shikimi had written- _The Doctor's Son_- by the time he finished the last page, a mere three days later. It had sent shivers up his spine many times, and actually gave him a nightmare the second night. Giima was not someone easy to scare, but he hoped it would be a while before he visited the hospital again. Sighing, he closed the book and headed off to lunch, intent on returning it to Shikimi and demanding another from her.

She was already at the table, sitting beside Renbu and across from Caitlin when he got there. Noticing that he had her book in hand, she beamed at him as he sat down.

"What did you think?" She asked as he handed it back to her. He smiled as pleasantly as he could as he took his seat.

"It sent shivers up my spine," he told her. She smiled as she returned to her breakfast. "Actually, I was wondering if I could borrow the next one, if you don't mind?"

"Not at all! I'll get it for you after breakfast." Giima thanked her as he began his own food. As he was eating he began to quietly observe Shikimi, curious about this strange little girl with the dark imagination and the bizarre battle strategy. He began to notice that the reason she didn't talk a lot wasn't because of shyness; it was because she seemed to be just so absorbed in her own thoughts- in her own world- that she didn't even notice what was going on around her. At one point he even caught her muttering quietly to herself, unnoticed by anyone but him. She pushed her food around her plate as she did, and furrowed her brow in thought. Giima was extremely curious as to what it that was going on in her mind that made her completely shut out the world. He was interrupted from his musings by a shout from Renbu.

"Oy! Earth to Dracula! Quit staring at the lovely lady at my side and answer me."

"Hmm? What was your question?" Giima asked mildly, not at all bothered by the nickname Renbu had given to him in the past couple of weeks. Chances were, he'd get a new one soon anyway. Giving everyone nicknames was one of Renbu's favourite ways to annoy people (mostly Caitlin).

"I asked if you wanted to play punch-the-creeper this afternoon with me."

"…I'll assume that you are asking for a battle. And this afternoon sounds fine for a game of- what did you call it again?"

"Punch-the-creeper." Renbu announced, apparently proud of his own ingenuity.

"Of course." Giima smiled. The rest of breakfast passed by rather uneventfully, and afterwards Giima followed Shikimi to her apartment to borrow another book.

He was pleased to find that Shikimi actually invited him inside this time, rather than making him wait out in the hall. Her apartment, while very spacious and organized, was also seemingly blanketed in papers. Loose papers covered the tables, the floors and even, Giima noticed with a touch of confusion, the kitchen sink, which was visible through a doorway to the left.

"Ah! No…_Cofagrigus_!" Shikimi all but screamed the ghost's name, and in a moment the mischievous pokemon materialized in front of them, laughing the same eerie laugh Giima had been able to hear from the hallway a few days earlier. "You are a complete jerk! I only invited someone in here because I had left this place clean!"

"Caaa…fa-fa-fa-fa." Cofagrigus seemed to say something in pokespeak, and then promptly began cackling at whatever joke he had made.

"You are so grounded." Shikimi seemed to have forgotten Giima's presence- again- and was glaring at her pokemon with all the authority she could muster. Which wasn't much, in Giima's opinion. Cofagrigus gave her a look that plainly said '_Aw, come on!_' but Shikimi simply huffed at him and returned him to his pokeball.

"Hm, Shikimi?" Giima said, partially because he wanted to ask her something, and partially to remind her that he was still there. Which was a valid concern, since she jumped a bit and looked at him with slightly wide eyes. "What did you ground him from?"

"Hm? Cofagrigus you mean?" she asked.

_No, I mean the other ghost you just grounded_, Giima thought, not annoyed so much as he was amused. "Yes, him."

"The water cooler." And with that she promptly took a light-footed leap over some papers to the bookshelf- probably fearing her heals would damage the papers, which all had writing on them. Giima felt his face get warm when the little manoeuvre lifted her skirt up just a bit, giving him a rather pleasant view.

Since when did he blush?

…And why did Shikimi just ground her pokemon from the water cooler, of all things? Something told him that there were many secret rules and references inside knowledge that went along with interacting with

"So, to start with," she said, snapping him away from his thoughts, "what did you like best about that book? You know, so I can pick the best one here for you." They began discussing the various aspects of the book that Giima had enjoyed, and the young man was absolutely fascinated with the way she discussed her book. It was like they really existed, to her at least. Giima couldn't decide whether that made her crazy or just very devoted to her work.

_Best to just say devoted_, he thought to himself, while Shikimi talked about what her characters were doing now. _She might get kicked out of the Elite Four if she's lost her mind. _

_Which would be bad because she's…such good competition, of course. Excellent for training._

"So in conclusion," she finally declared after a few minutes, a little loudly, "this one would be best for you." She pulled out a book, seemingly at random, and thrust it at Giima, who promptly grabbed it before said book slammed into his chest. He was surprised her speech had gone on for so long- this was the most he'd ever heard her talk.

"Ah, oh. Thank you, very much. I hope I'm not imposing, but would you mind telling me what gave you the idea for _The Doctor's Son_? It seems rather original, and I was wondering what prompted it." Truth be told, Giima simply loved hearing her talk about her books. He felt like he was getting a peak into another world that before this only Shikimi inhabited. Her mind fascinated him, and he wanted to learn more.

"Oh, haha, _that_. Well, you see…" Shikimi spent the next five minutes talking about what prompted her to start _the Doctor's Son_ (apparently, one of Confagrigus' pranks had gone rather wrong and landed her in the hospital, and from there her mind pretty much just spiralled out of control, imagination-wise). They ended up pushing papers away and sitting in Shikimi's living room after a few minutes. Giima managed to keep prodding her to talk about various things about herself for nearly half an hour, at which point something occurred to her. "Hey, why am I doing all the talking? What about you- why did you choose to raise dark-types?"

"Me?" He leaned back, not sure what to say. "Well, I guess it was a combination of things. Probably mostly the way they think though."

"Oh, how so?" Giima smiled as he began to talk about the various psychological quirks of a dark-type. He found he enjoyed talking with Shikimi- she was actually rather insightful, and while some of her comments were a little…out there (such as asking whether he was immune to Caitlin's remarks, seeing as she raised psychic-types) she was still quite interesting to talk to. It was only when they were interrupted an hour and a half later by an irritated "luuuure!" from the ceiling that they stopped. Looking up, Giima saw a rather annoyed looking Chandelure hovering near the ceiling.

"Oh, sorry! I was supposed to feed them like…a while ago." Shikimi apologized, standing up as the ghost-type drifted downwards, and more began to randomly appear out of thin air around them.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I should probably head back now anyways," he said, standing up. _And all these ghosts are somewhat freaking me out._

"Oh, okay then…well, tell me what you think of that later then," Shikimi said, pointing at the book in his hand.

"I will." He smiled and turned to leave (almost bumping into a hovering Dusknoir in the process). Making sure to step lightly over the papers. Giima slowly let himself out of the apartment and made his way back to his own. Like he had done with Shikimi's first book, he flopped himself down on the couch and began reading, and kept doing so until Renbu came pounding on the door demanding his battle.

The next day (he was already halfway through the book), he made sure to sit beside Shikimi, and the two of them kept talking throughout breakfast, albeit with a few interruptions from Renbu. Though those stopped when, after the third interruption, Caitlin plunked softly against the fighting-type trainer's shoulder, completely asleep. Renbu simply smiled and snuck his arm around her, stopping his jabs at Giima in favour for making sure Caitlin stayed asleep.

After breakfast Giima walked Shikimi back to her room, the conversation they were having had gone from books and evolved into many different, seemingly unrelated topics. Once they hit the ghost-type trainer's room, an idea occurred to Giima.

"Shikimi?"

"Yes'm?"

"Considering we've only gotten the chance to talk at meals and when I am borrowing a book, I thought you might be interested in having dinner with me. Away from the League." He leaned against the wall, smiling slyly down at Shikimi, who looked a little confused.

"Like…a date?" She finally asked. Giima smiled wider as he looked down into her eyes, thinking about how much he enjoyed talking with her, her original battling style, and her almost surprising intelligence.

"Perhaps," he said, appearing to mull it over. "Perhaps."

"Well…" Shikimi put her finger to her chin, looking as innocent as possible. "I think I can only go if I know for sure."

"Well, if you insist." Giima sighed, making sure it sounded exasperated. "I suppose we could consider it a date, if you must put a label on such a thing."

Shikimi smiled, and asked which restaurant they would be going to.

**A/N Aren't Renbu and Caitlin adorable? StereotypicalShipping yo. Second best to RolandShipping. Please tell me if I made any mistakes in this!**

**Yes, I know Shikimi doesn't have a Dusknoir in the games. But Drifblim are so lame, so I replaced the lame ghost with the best ghost ever. She can still have a Drifblim…just not on her active team.**

**Also…who wants a Giima pic? It's how I imagine him reading Shikimi's books (isn't she just the freaking cutest?)**

http : / giimagrimsleygalore . tumblr . com / post / 4119091208

**Take out the spaces and you're good to go.**


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